TRACING CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN GERMAN, RUSSIAN, AND UZBEK WORD SEMANTICS

This article explores how cultural contexts shape the semantics of words in three distinct linguistic systems — German, Russian, and Uzbek. Drawing from comparative and cognitive linguistics, the study examines how historical experience, worldview, and social norms are encoded in lexical meanings. Each of the three languages reflects its unique cultural and cognitive model: the rational precision and individualism of German, the collectivism and emotional expressiveness of Russian, and the metaphorical symbolism and traditionalism of Uzbek. By analyzing key semantic fields — kinship, emotion, time, and social relations — the paper demonstrates how linguistic semantics serves as a mirror of national mentality and how cultural contact, globalization, and bilingualism influence ongoing semantic change.